Undergraduate Laptop Requirement

All incoming undergraduate students in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering are required to have a laptop at their disposal. Laptops do not need to be brought to campus on a daily basis, but individual courses may require that a laptop be brought to class or lab sessions. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that his or her laptop meets the following requirements:

Laptop Spec

Minimum

Recommended

Processor (CPU)

Intel Core i5

Intel Core i7

Memory (RAM)

8 GB

16 GB

Hard Drive

250 GB

500 GB

Wireless

802.11n

802.11ac

Video Card (GPU)

Integrated

Discrete/Dedicated

Warranty

Factory Warranty

3 yr. with Accidental Coverage

Operating System Requirements

Students are required to install specific software packages on their laptops for certain classes. Most of the software packages used in our program are only available on the Microsoft Windows platform. Due to this need, all laptops are required to have Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit (minimum) or Windows 10 64-bit (recommended).

Mac OS/X

Students with Mac OS/X operating systems will need to obtain and install an additional copy of Windows for their system. CAEE recommends that students use virtualization environments that permit both operating systems to run simultaneously.

Virtualization Environments

Virtualization software operates two distinct computer environments on the same laptop. The original Mac OS/X still continues to be the primary operating system, while Windows can be installed and run as a guest operating system inside a "virtual machine". Two recommended options are:

Although most of the engineering software packages in the Learning Resource Center are available via remote access through the CAEE Application Delivery Service (AppD), the following applications are recommended for local installation on your laptop:

A backup strategy is important for data protection and using a cloud data sync service is one option. The UTBox service provides unlimited cloud data storage at no cost.

Laptops are highly vulnerable assets that contain a huge amount of personal information that is easily accessible by thieves unless encryption is enabled. Although not required for general purpose use, it is recommended that your laptop be encrypted using your operating systems native encryption utility (e.g. BitLocker, Filevault 2), or a third party application such as TrueCrypt. The encryption method chosen may depend on the hardware and operating system supported by the encryption utility. Note: BitLocker requires Windows 7 Enterprise/Ultimate editions or 10 Pro/Enterprise editions with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). FileVault 2 requires MacOS 10.7 or later.